killer of Liverpool toddler James Bulger, jailed for two years over child porn images

JAMES Bulger's killer Jon Venables was jailed for two years today after he admitted downloading and distributing child pornography.

Venables stored images of children as young as two on his home computer and made online contact with a paedophile by posing as a 35-year-old mother.

The 27-year-old was recalled to prison after being caught with the images in February. He told police he was “breaking the last taboo”.Venables was given a new identity after he and Robert Thompson were jailed for the 1993 murder of two-year-old James Bulger - a crime they committed at the age of just 10.

He appeared via videolink at the Old Bailey today but, in a move described as unprecedented, only the judge, Mr Justice Bean, was allowed to see him.

Venables spoke only to confirm his name and to plead guilty to three charges.

The judge said it would be wrong to increase his sentence because he was one of the two people responsible for the “horrific” murder of James Bulger.

But he said that as Venables was still on licence for the crime, he would not automatically be released on serving half his sentence, as it would be up to the parole board to decide.

The judge said: “Accessing child pornography on a computer is not a victimless crime, since people who do it encourage the exploitation of the children who are filmed or photographed.”

In a statement issued after the sentence was announced by his solicitor, Venables said he has thought about the death of James Bulger ``every day'' since 1993 and apologised for his actions.

Jon Venables appeared at the Old Bailey in London via videolink and pleaded guilty to three charges linked to indecent images of children.

James’s mother Denise Fergus was in court with her husband Stuart to hear her son’s murderer admit the offences.

Each of the three charges carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years.

Venables first admitted downloading 57 indecent photographs of children between February last year and February this year. The second charge involved making seven images available to others on the internet. The third charge involved distributing 42 images in February 2008.

The killer, 27, was recalled to prison in February this year when the new allegations came to light.

He was just 10 when he and Robert Thompson murdered James after abducting him from The Strand shopping centre in Bootle in 1993.

The pair were jailed for life the following year but were released on licence in 2001 and given new identities.

In a highly unusual move, Venables could be seen only by the judge hearing the case today.

Nothing was known about his new life until the police investigation into the downloaded images emerged.

Details of why Venables was recalled to prison were banned from being published after a High Court injunction was made on May 21. But it was lifted by Mr Justice Bean on June 21 after a media application.

A representative of the Director of Public Prosecutions revealed the details of the charges, which at the time involved the 57 downloaded indecent photographs of children and distributing six indecent films and one photograph.

Gavin Millar QC said there was no evidence anyone else had accessed the porn but Venables’s actions had “exposed them to acquisition”.

JAMES BULGER'S mother Denise Fergus has criticised the two-year sentence handed to her son's killer Jon Venables as 'simply not enough'.Venables was jailed after pleading guilty to three charges of downloading and distributing indecent images of children.

Speaking outside the Old Bailey, Chris Johnson, spokesman for Denise Fergus, said: "We have been in court this morning and we have once again had to sit through proceedings where justice has not been done.

"These are very serious offences and two years is simply not enough to reflect the gravity of what this person did.

"We were surprised and concerned he was not recalled under the terms of his parole licence when he committed an offence in 2008.

"The former Justice Secretary Jack Straw promised a case review and we are urging the current secretary Ken Clarke to instigate a full investigation into the conduct of the probabtion service in this case."